yarn along, winter successes

Here it is yarn along time with Ginny as the month of March has come in like a lamb...thus far in my region of the country,  and after missing last month's yarn along I was happy to be able to post on what I am presently knitting and reading.

I continued most winter evenings knitting on this fascinating cabled vest by Thea Colman, which I am  happy to announce I am almost through with the cabling side! Then its on to the front of the vest which is all stocking knit and should go much more quickly, a project to tote along while I ride in cars or wait in coffee shops allowing knitting  on it more devotedly. The cabling pattern required a pattern board and concentration....

But my serious lack of finished knitting does not mean I have neither been learning new things nor immersed in other worthwhile pursuits. The making of bread with sourdough starter and einkorn flour has been a journey worth traversing, and one which I have loved.  Along with my three cats, outside birds at the feeders (not mentioning the squirrels), I am now feeding a sourdough starter and a bowl of live brown planaria. Think tenth grade biology invertebrates, and the dissection of earthworms...

Reading....one of my goals was to find some very good clean crime/mystery novels this winter. This had a two fold purpose since my mother-in-law loves to read mysteries and crime novels and I would like to have some new authors to recommend to her. I believe I found it in Charles Todd. Why is it that crime and mystery writers can be so fecund? Their minds amaze me. I am presently reading through the Bess Crawford series by this author. And what is a winter without a little bedtime/soaking in the bathtub while reading Miss Read's Winter in Thrush Green? Truthfully, I must read that novel every winter and it never ceases to hold my delight and interest. I found another good read in the library recently, Ann Hood's Kitchen Yarns, an autobiography of her life from childhood (first memories) until the present. And she  disperses recipes at the end of every chapter enticing my tastebuds to tie on a apron and get cooking!